Sandblasting the valve cover? [Merged 11-8] sand glass bead beads media baffle grit

[Defiant]

Hook up the hose on the solvent tank to the outlet, and let it run all night. What that doesn't clean out can't come out to hurt anything.
Neither can the old varnish, for that matter.

 

[housegsx]

Fill it up with aircraft remover a few times. That stuff takes anything off. I used it to strip all the oil film from my valve cover.

 

[tsunari]

unfortunately I dont have a parts washer bin . . . otherwise pumping solvent through it overnite sounds like a good idea. I may just try some other solvents and see how i feel about it. just keep flushing and flushing until nothing more comes out.

Thanks for all of the replys guys!

 

[Defiant]

unfortunately I dont have a parts washer bin . . .

You'll thank yourself over and over:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=35740

 

[GVR4592]

I honestly don't think that will work. I have one and I'm going to try it out this weekend, and see what happens.

 

[1993eclipseGS]

Hot-tank, The valvecover.

 

[tsunari]

I honestly don't think that will work. I have one and I'm going to try it out this weekend, and see what happens.

Awesome . . . definitely post results

Hot-tank, The valvecover.

Trying to save the powdercoat that is on it . . . so hot tanking isn't a very good solution in this particular situation

 

[Dragon TalonTsi]

As for the pic under the baffles, I am telling you, that the SIMPLE GREEN Max, for auto use only, dissolves that stuff almost instantly, and so does CLR, or Lime A way... I have tried a lot of other methods, but by hand, is by far the best way. You actually feel the aluminum, you feel the grooves, the bumps, the letters, everything... Hot ass or even boiling water, and the simple green, it will dissolve all of that.... I will show you when I get my other valve cover in, and I will do it my self, as always... and I will do what I have come to feel is the best (and one of the cheapest) ways to do this... I should be getting it saturday, and when I do, I will post the pics again, or email them so save space on my attachement memory here on tuners...

 

[VanIsleDSM]

how are the rivets held into the top of the cover? could you not just get some new rivets and pound them out when you put the baffle back in? or what about using brake clean and just stuffing the straw all around in there and blasting away, the good stuff comes out pretty high pressure. I'm sitting in my apartment right now on the balcony sanding and sanding away at my cover getting all the oily grime outa the little casting pits, it's gonna be mint, tomorrow it's back to dad's driveway to finish the tbelt and paint the cover. It's not that bad for gunk inside, just some light oil staining, but I still want to clean it up obviously.. and make sure there isn't any aluminum dust in there.

 

[steve]

how are the rivets held into the top of the cover?

The "rivets" are part of the rocker cover casting.

Steve

 

[Lurker]

Even if there is leftover sand in the valve cover from media blasting, how would the sand cause damage ?
All the sand/contaminants will do is get drained to the oil pan, and will get filtered by the oil filter before oil gets into the bearings..

 

[Defiant]

..after being ground through the oil filter.

 

[tsunari]

Even if there is leftover sand in the valve cover from media blasting, how would the sand cause damage ?
All the sand/contaminants will do is get drained to the oil pan, and will get filtered by the oil filter before oil gets into the bearings..

True . . . the sand would harmlessly wash down into the oil pan and perhaps get drained out, but some of it would actually get picked up and go through the oil pump un-filtered. That's where the damage begins.

It'll get ground through the oil pump gears and start destroying the tolerances . . . before you know it, now your oil pressure is slowly starting to deteriorate and you have metal flakes starting to circulate. The oil filter will most likely catch these, but if the sand is small enough it could then circulate to your air/oil cooler, turbo, bearings, and even up as far as the head and start destroying the cam journals.

Trust me- I've seen it

 

[dj_lethrow]

After seeing this it really makes me think twice about putting the valve cover back on. I filled up the baffles completely with purple power and let it soak for 15 hours. Got some nasty stuff out then also ran brake cleaner through it. After that blew it all out with the air compressor. Nothing really came out after that. Still scary though. I think it will be alright, but if I do decided to drill out the baffles can they be welded back on? If so what type of welding would do it?

 

[tsunari]

I'm not sure if you've gotten everything out or not. The only real way to find out would be to drill the baffles out. To put them back in, you might be able to get someone to weld it back in but from what I hear, the quality aluminum used to cast valve covers isn't exactly high quality and may be difficult.

After seeing the pix from GVR4592, I drilled mine out and it looked exactly like his. This nice mud/sludge of sand deep in the corners of the valve cover.

I personally will never again put a valve cover on a motor that has seen a sand blaster. It's just not worth the risk.

 

[logic]

These pictures (courtesy of Mitch over at Engintecs) were all it took to convince me not to ever let a valve cover I own be media-blasted.

 

[dj_lethrow]

Definitely a good point. I'm going to drill mine out regaurdless of how well it has been cleaned. Friend of mine is a really good welder so I'm sure he can put it all back together. I see a gasket in between do I still need that? I'm sure once I pull it up it will probably separate that seal.

 

[tsunari]

Yeah, those pix speak for themselves . . . I'll add mine to the post later this afternoon.

As for that seal, it looks to be just like an epoxy or something. Could probably just use some RTV when trying to re-install the baffle.

I too may try and get my baffles put back in, but as of right now I really dont care. I'm just glad to be driving again

*****UPDATE*****

The pix I took of inside my VC didn't turn out as well as the others posted on here, so I'll instead show what happens when the sand/media actually makes it to the oil pump. -- enjoy

 

[dj_lethrow]

Damn that looks bad. New qustion arises though. If I silicone the panel back on then have it welded it would melt the silicone wouldn't it? It's going to get pretty hot in there. Is it necessary to have that gasket even?

 

[tsunari]

Damn that looks bad. New qustion arises though. If I silicone the panel back on then have it welded it would melt the silicone wouldn't it? It's going to get pretty hot in there. Is it necessary to have that gasket even?

If you're using Ultra Grey to seal the edges . . . then let that fully cure and then tack-weld the 12 or so places that the baffles were originally secured at, I doubt you'll have many problems.

If you end up getting this done, definitely take some pix and post em up- I'd like to see . . . just might get mine done if it works out.

 

[dj_lethrow]

I'll probably get it all taken care of possibly this weekend or early next week. I just painted this valve cover and it turned out really well so I'd rather take the extra time to get it cleaned up just to be safe. I'll get pics during the process.

 

[hks-gst]

Correct me if im wrong...The valve cover is aluminum and the baffles are steel? therefore you cannot get the baffles welded back on. What I did to clean mine out was soak it in a mix of dish soap and simple green in my tub for about a day or so washed it out atleast 7 times, then then I took that out and filled the baffle holes with laqoiur thinner (dont spill any on the paint) let it sit for a day, then rinsed it. I was still not satisfied so I had my friend drill out the baffles to check if it was clean...it was spotless he said, then he put the baffles back on by tapping the valve cover and using small screws from radio shack and jb weld.

 

[4wd-Eclipse]

Can anyone tell me ... what are the disadvantages of using the valve cover WITHOUT the baffle?

 

[tsunari]

Correct me if im wrong...The valve cover is aluminum and the baffles are steel? therefore you cannot get the baffles welded back on. What I did to clean mine out was soak it in a mix of dish soap and simple green in my tub for about a day or so washed it out atleast 7 times, then then I took that out and filled the baffle holes with laqoiur thinner (dont spill any on the paint) let it sit for a day, then rinsed it. I was still not satisfied so I had my friend drill out the baffles to check if it was clean...it was spotless he said, then he put the baffles back on by tapping the valve cover and using small screws from radio shack and jb weld.

correct, the baffle is steel . . . I had thought of taping the valve cover and using some screws as well, but just never really thought it a good idea. Would really suck if one vibrated loose and dropped into the valvetrain. But then again . . . I'm a bit paranoid

As for running a VC with no baffle, you'll probably be spitting out quite a bit of oil through the breather ports instead of just venting the oily mist. I'm sure it would be quite a mess.

 

[dj_lethrow]

Got the cover taken off and it a little sandy in there. So it goes to show no matter how well it's cleaned it's still going to stick to anything that's up there. It's going over to the shop on monday so I should have it back the same day or the next.